Golfing luxury at Cape Kidnappers
There is something about standing in a vast expanse of green, the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean up ahead, and no one but your golfing partner in sight.
Welcome to Cape Kidnappers, where they play golf the way it is played in heaven.
From the time an American-accented voice greets you over the intercom and the electronic wooden gates at the roadside swing slowly open, it is apparent Cape Kidnappers is different.
%26quot;Not for the likes of us,%26quot; is how the motelier on Napier%26#39;s waterfront described it when asked for directions the night before. Like many locals, he%26#39;s vexed by the gates that deny entry to all but invited guests.
Past the gates a private road winds alongside a dry riverbed, through a pine forest, past sheep-filled paddocks to a farmhouse-style lodge cunningly built into a hillside to disguise its bulk.
By the time we reach the lodge, where a tall man wearing neatly pressed trousers, an open-necked shirt and a navy-blue sports jacket is waiting to greet us, we%26#39;re beginning to wonder whether the motelier might have been right. Perhaps Cape Kidnappers isn%26#39;t for the likes of us. The car is caked with dried mud, picked up who knows where, there%26#39;s a scrape on the left front panel that we haven%26#39;t got around to repairing and the interior is littered with the detritus of numerous cups of coffee, snacks and muddy football boots.
If the man in the sports jacket notices, he does a good job of pretending he has not as he reaches through the open window for a handshake.
He is, it turns out, the owner of the voice that greeted us over the intercom. He is also the son of Julian Robertson, the retired American hedge fund manager who has spent $90 million transforming a 2000-hectare farm on the clifftops across the bay from Napier into a lodge and golf course rated the 27th best in the world by one golfing magazine and the 10th best outside the United States by another.
Since July, Julian H Robertson III %26ndash; %26quot;Jay%26quot; to distinguish him from his father %26ndash; has been overseeing the construction of the lodge. We are among the first guests.
Look closely and there are signs of last-minute activity. Workmen are putting the finishing touches to the 15-metre infinity pool with views out across the farm to the Pacific, rectangles of turf have been laid around the lodge like carpet squares to create a lawn, and there%26#39;s a smell of new paint in the nearby cottage to which our bags are taken.
But from a guest%26#39;s point of view, The Farm has an air of unhurried calm, the sort of air that wealthy American, Canadian and European tourists pay thousands of dollars a night to enjoy. Big bunches of fresh flowers greet new arrivals, cosy nooks, leather couches and cane loungers beckon at every turn, and friendly staff hover nearby to attend to every need.
The main building has been designed to look like a large, sprawling farmhouse. There%26#39;s a glass- fronted loggia out the front on which guests can enjoy an apres- golf drink while admiring the view, two dining rooms, a lounge with a McCahon landscape hanging over the fireplace and a circular snug built in what looks from the outside like a wooden grain silo. Downstairs there is a spacious gym, a wine cellar and a tasting room.
Four guest suites are attached to the main building, but most of the accommodation is provided in unattached cottages. Ours is on a nearby ridge. It has a heavy, barn- style door, dark timber floors and a rough-hewn hall table in the entranceway.
Once past the entrance it is all luxury %26ndash; a walk-in wardrobe, an airy bathroom with his and hers vanity units, a bath big enough for two, airconditioning, a remote- controlled fire, a pull-out flat-screen television, concealed behind a framed photograph, and an enormous bed decked out in crisp white linen.
Cape Kidnappers is foremost a golfing destination but the Robertsons discovered at Kauri Cliffs, their Bay of Islands golf course, that there are not enough golfing tourists to sustain a luxury lodge. So Cape Kidnappers has been set up for tourists who want a taste of farm life but want to dine in a fine restaurant %26ndash; gentlemen, a jacket %26ndash; where they can choose between quail breast and confit leg and seared Nelson scallops as an entree.
There%26#39;s a spa on site, the restaurant will prepare a hamper for a picnic on the headland near one of the cape%26#39;s famous gannet colonies, fishing and bird-watching expeditions can be arranged, and guests can take quad-bike and four-wheel- drive tours of the farm.
But we%26#39;re here to play golf. After spending $20 to play the picturesque Dannevirke course on the drive north, it is hard to imagine how green fees of $225 to $400 can be justified. But it quickly becomes apparent that a round at Cape Kidnappers is a unique experience.
Everything a golfer could want has been thought of.
In locker rooms chic enough to grace the pages of a design magazine, cans of shaving cream and bottles of moisturiser and sunscreen await the forgetful. On grass so perfect it seems a crime to take a divot, pyramids of shiny white balls wait to be hacked into the distance on the practice fairway.
We%26#39;ve booked a 10am tee time but there%26#39;s no hurry. It%26#39;s Saturday morning but only 22 golfers are on the course. When we finally reach the first we find a 402m par-four hole that sweeps grandly to the right, dips sharply into a gully, then rises to a hilltop green protected by five deep bunkers on the left. It%26#39;s typical of the course.
Follow American designer Tom Doak%26#39;s advice %26ndash; keep to the righthand side of the fairway and aim to the right of the flag and it%26#39;s probably fairly straightforward. Stray off the beaten path and the course reveals its alter ego. The rough is barely a foot long but so tangled as to be impenetrable, the bunkers are deep and cunningly placed to gather wayward shots, and the greens, so smooth it%26#39;s like putting on a billiard table, are laced with subtle breaks to trip the unwary.
Whether you spend the day striding purposefully down the centre of the fairway or stomping about in the rough looking for another lost ball, you%26#39;ll remember the experience with fondness. There%26#39;s a grandeur to the course that lingers long after the frustration has dissipated, and the ocean views are staggering.
Offered the chance to do it all again after breakfast the next morning, we leap at the opportunity.
The motelier was right. Cape Kidnappers isn%26#39;t for the likes of us. We can%26#39;t afford it, but we wish we could.
* The Farm at Cape Kidnappers hosted Nick Venter.
MORE INFORMATION * Address: The Farm at Cape Kidnappers, 448 Clifton Rd, Te Awanga, * Website: www.capekidnappers.com* Cost: The lodge%26#39;s 24 guest suites are from $320 to $650 a person a night in the low season; $500 to $990 in the high season. Four-bedroom owner%26#39;s cottage $8000 to $10,000 a night. Breakfast and dinner included.
Tags: amp, dining rooms, grass, greens, landscape, locals, pool0
